Former Rangers and Bosnia and Herzegovina left-back Sasa Papac was one of the fan favourites at Ibrox in his six-year stint at the club and was also part of the team which made an improbable run to the 2008 UEFA Cup final. Recently the former fullback said that he believes Rangers have it in them to have another special run in the Europa League and the former player believes Steven Gerrard can guide them to another final.
Papac was quoted as saying,”It is great to see Rangers in European competition again. I have watched every game on TV and seeing those matches at Ibrox again is terrific. It is hard to say how they will go. In 2008, we didn’t know that we were going to make it to the final. We just played from game to game and grew up with every match.
We weren’t the favourites in many of the games and just tried to do our best job in every match. This team must do the same and we will see how it goes. Steven Gerrard is doing great. He made real progress very quickly and I am surprised and so happy to see it.”
Papac is naturally speaking with a bit of sentiment and love for his old club but we believe getting out of the group for the Gers should be considered as a significant success. After all just last year only, this team lost in the first round of the Europa League qualifiers. Under Gerrard, they went on an unbeaten streak of 11 games and even after a gut-wrenching defeat against Spartak Moskva, Rangers still have things in their hands if they want to progress to the knock out rounds.
With just two points separating Celtic and the Bears in the league, fans would be more satisfied to see the club winning and ending Celtic’s domination in the Premiership rather than an unprecedented run in Europe. As the competition intensifies, Rangers would have to play a fair bit of extra fixtures (If they get to the knockout phase) and that might add more pressure to the squad.
As for getting to the finals, we believe the competition in Europe has increased manifolds since 2008 with several high profile clubs playing in the so-called second tier of European competition. The likes of Bayer Leverkusen, Chelsea, Arsenal and Sevilla would be expected to go in deep in the tournament. Not to forget the third place Champions League teams would also make an entry into the competition and some heavyweights are definitely in line to finish third right now. (Tottenham, PSG and Valencia are currently third in their respective groups)
However, Rangers have defied all odds as of now to make it to Europe in the first place let alone going on an unbeaten run of 11 games. The club should enjoy as long as they are in the cup and moving in the last 8 or 4 would be a monumental task to ask for in Gerrard’s first season.
